Last week was my bands last gig for this year and we opened at the Miami Shark Bar on the Gold Coast on Friday 17th December

Because we opened, we decided to try out our new banners and amp covers to see how they would look and the results were quite impressive, well to me it was:

My side of the stage with my complete rig:

View from Franks side of the stage looking at Ty’s kit and the 3m X 3m banner.

Another one of Ty’s kit and my rig:

Another one from Franks side

Pretty impressive to look at.  The use of white will give us the opportunity to increase our lighting with lasers and other visual effects to go with our show.

CANT WAIT to give that a whirl!

My band, The Cilikis Progressio Project will be playing this Friday night 17th of December 2010 at the Miami Shark Bar in Miami Queensland.  Its free entry, doors are open at 8pm and we go on first to open the night at 8.30pm.  Make sure you get there early if you do not want to miss us play.

Also we have another gig coming up on the 13th of January at the Globe Theatre, Fortitude Valley.  Doors are at 7pm and its $12 a head. The Globe is a top venue in Brisbane to play and its one of our favourite places to play.  We are playing with two other bands that night, The Irrits and Noxious. 

Ive seen Noxious play before and they are quite entertaining to watch live so dont miss it.

The facebook event for this is below:

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=169034463118827

Getting the Runs!

On the odd occasion, i get a new student walk in the door at school.   Most of the time its your atypical male, early to middle age who is keen on picking back up the guitar .

The come in, sit down and tell me what they want to achieve.  Most of the time they are just wanting to get back on the guitar playing horse and learn a few more tricks of the trade that they either once knew before and re-learn the stuff they have forgotten or they just want to dust off the guitar and get the fingers working again in a better state than they used to be.

Its not just the standard “businessman/woman” who wants to do this, sometimes its a seasoned professional guitarist just wanting a second opinion on their playing along with some extra techniques that will help them hone their already ample skill on the instrument or maybe they just want an outside view of their own on playing the guitar.  Most of the best learning is done by watching someone else play the guitar and what better way to do that than up close.

Playing the guitar is one of the most enjoyable thing a person can do and its extremely addictive! 

Its a lot of fun, a great time waster and a sanity saver.  For me, i use it to switch off after working all day and it gives me the mental down time.

Here are some of my warm up exercises that I use to get into the playing mood and warm the fingers up by just getting down to the basics of simple playing technique.  Not only are they simple to play and great for warming up, they prove to be useful in teaching players a way of rounding out a players technique, finger placement improvement and giving them some alternatives to their current playing techniques.

The first one is a basic run one fret after the other.

Pretty simple run, there is nothing to it.  But there are a couple of rules to doing these exercises:

1. Match the fret number to the finger number
1. Finger one – Index finger
2. Finger two – Middle finger
3. Finger three – Ring finger
4. Finger four – Pinky
2. Play the sequence keeping a fretted note in its position
1. Basically means keep pressing the note down when playing the subsequent frets
3. Keep the fingers as close to and parallel to the fret wire.
4. Keep the thumb below the top neck line and at least at right angles to the neck of the guitar.
5. Alternate picking strokes (Down Up Down Up etc…)
6. Can be played in reverse as well.

Following these rules aren’t set in stone for any player but for these exercises, it encourages the player to focus on “how” they are playing the guitar, not how fast they can go or how much feel they can get into the run and so on. Nor is it about applying theory to the guitar, that’s an entirely different topic all together.

The second run is the same as the first but you will notice that the starting fret on each string changes forcing the player to shift their hand position along the neck slightly.  When doing this run, keep the same rules as above.  Movement from one position to another should be smooth and seamless in context of the run:

This run is similar to the previous but as the run moves through the strings the gap between positions increases and then decreases.  Once again, follow the same rules as before:

The run can be altered to suit a players needs and skill.  Instead of the pattern return towards the first position, the pattern can continue opening up along the fretboard (IE: the gap gets wider)

Time to skip! 

A lot of players are great from one string to the next but not all are that crash hot at skipping over strings, especially if their picking technique is small and tight (lots of shredders are like this and have a very tight and accurate picking).  This run is just an introduction into the world of physical technique of skipping strings and is helpful for players who want more control of their playing when jumping strings.

This next one is one of my favourites, I use it to warm up and get not only the fingers moving but the eye moving as well.  One thing that is over looked is not only that the guitarist must have both hands in sync but also they eye.  This is great for helping that eye look at the right spot to get the player landing in the right place at the right time. 

Like all the runs, play them in both directions, ascending and descending

Splitting the pattern

After playing all these four note per string pattern, sometimes ill split them up into two note groups and run through the exercise like so:

The same rules apply to this exercise as the four note per string patters.  For example, when playing frets 3 and 4, keep depressing 1 and 2.  When 3 and 4 are completed, 1 and 2 onwards keeping 3 and 4 depressed.  Sort of helps encourage independent finger movement.  Lots of players (especially learner players) don’t have much control over what their fretting hands fingers are doing.  On the odd occasion when say moving finger number two, finger number one might move too far away from the fret board and so on.  This helps a player develop some better control over what their fingers get up to when they aren’t playing.

This run is just the inverse of the previous run.  To play this one, start the pattern with finger three and proceed from there.

5 Note Position Shifting Practice

Sometimes, notes played aren’t always played in the common three notes per string pattern which persists in literally every player.  Sometimes its necessary to shift along the same string weather or not the music requires it or if its a convenient position shift.  Most players do this with ease but these drills are more focused on maintaining a structured movement  technique along the string.

The above two examples are pretty easy to do.  Play them the same way you would the four fret drills above but they require an extra frets movement in a particular direction.  On the ascending drill, the shift pattern happens on the fifth fret.  This is generally how i do this.  I invariably shift position using my fourth finger (pinky) to the fifth fret then when moving to the next string i will jump to that 1st fret with my first finger.

The next two are identical frets to the first, the only real difference is the shifting finger.  The first five frets are played with the first finger doing the shifting, moving on to the next string and shifting with the second finger and so on in ascending and descending fashion.

The shift finger reverses direction when you reach the fourth finger as the shifter note.

To most advanced players, this is a snap.  Well sorry to disappoint but its not always about you is it? Ha. 

These are just some practice drills that i use and i teach with to help out guitarists of all levels.  Most intermediate to advanced players have seen these types of things before and really do not help them much at all but if you are that type of player who thinks “Hmmm my playing technique needs a bit of work” or your just thinking that you need something outside your normal scale runs that you do, then you should get some use out of these. 

The best way to get something out of these is to use the old Karate Kid movie method, “Wax On Wax Off!”

I will write more about these techniques soon with other drills and exercises when time permits.

Next? Pattern Drills across individual strings.

© 2010 Brendan McLaughlin

Well Well Well.  The last gig of the year is fast approaching!

DECEMBER 17th Miami Shark Bar Gold Coast Australia.

Doors 8pm FREE ENTRY!

We are opening the show at 8.30 PM followed by A Bid Farewell, Sending Artax and The Passenger headlining the show.

Also there are a couple of more gigs coming up in January 2011 as we kick off the year with a bang

Jan 8th Shed 5 Gold Coast (All ages gig)
Jan 13th The Globe Brisbane.

The Cilikis Progressio Project has been recording (well RE-recording)

The drums have been completed for 10 out of the 11 tracks plus about 3 tracks have had the guitars and bass work done for them.

There is still plenty (and i mean PLENTY) to do for the tracking so this process is far from over but never the less the mixes are sounding fat as you can get. Very impressed for recording this ourselves.
The guitar solos and harmonising will be done at a later date when time permits of course, plus still debating weather or not to use the rather large sounding small fella, the Orange Dual Terror, for a little amplifier, it has a tonne of nuts and grunt with its tone.  The Marshall DSL will still be the amp of choice for the rhythm guitars as nothing (and i mean NOTHING) compares to that raw voice Rock ‘n Roll.

My custom guitar effects have been used for some recordings so far and sound fantastic!  I used my custom compressor on the weekend to record this funk’ish/rock/country’ish/disco/70s stick movie style song.

Its a mishmash of Paul Gilbert meets Isaac Hayes meets Satriani meets Stevie Wonder meets Brad Paisley meets “Yes” type of song that sounds like it will raise a few eyebrows and definitely shows the versatility and creativity of the boys.  Being instrumental means having to come up with alot more musically creative means in which to keep the listener interested and this track will definitely do that.  Ive been listening to the desk mix in the car and cant help bop along as im driving with all these ideas going off in my head for melodies and leads etc.

Schools out!

My teaching finishes this week for the year until February next year so I am available for private guitar lessons if anyone is interested.  Its $40 for a 45 minute lesson (generally 45 minutes is plenty of time depending on the student and what they want).   So if you are keen, buzz me!

Cilikis Progressio Project links

If you want you can get more details about the Cilikis Progressio Project at any of these web links:

http://www.facebook.com/CilikisProgressioProject

http://www.twitter.com/TheCPP

http://www.reverbnation.com/TheCilikisProgressioProject

Our MySpace does not get used that much thanks to Fairfax media turning it into an unusable circus of advertising, poorly coded Flash and Dynamic HTML coding  and flogging big name artists (you know the ones that should be sweeping the red carpet rather than be standing on it?)

SO! Without further a due

GUITAR MADNESS MP3s are now available for download.

ONLY $8 for the 8 songs.

Visit my web store at http://bit.ly/CPPBrendanMcLaughlinStore

This collection contains all of my personal favourite songs that I have written over the years with the intention of putting together my own CD but as usual, time and money does not permit things to happen how you want them too.

I hope you enjoy this collection of music as much as i do.

I am, no different!

Ive been bombarded with emails, messages and what not about ideas for tone but all those aside, it only ever comes down to one thing:  What ever it is you want in tone, only YOU can decide.

SO, A few months back i started on this quest we guitarists head down in search for what is our own complete and perfect tone.  After spending a lot of time reading and experimenting with electronics learning the ways of guitar special effects designing and implementation, i have finally created my first analog pedal that has added a great deal to my tonal options.

My Own Custom DIY Clean Boost Version 1

Basically all it is, is a boost pedal based on the Ibanez Tube Screamer.

There are a couple of design changes that I made by reading articles in books and on websites and lots of tinkering.

All that aside it still is a chopped down version of the Tube Screamer with a few mods.

First off, there is no tone knob.  The reason is that I didn’t want to have my guitar signal attenuated by the pedal at any stage nor have the ability to do that.  If i want to change my overall tone, ill use the amplifiers settings.  I want a clear full unaltered signal being sent to the amp.

Secondly, i reduced the opamp’s gain to about +15db or by a factor of eight.  I didnt want any clipping of the signal so I decided to use just enough boost from the opamp to give me a nice big clean signal.

Thirdly i replaced the input buffer BJT with a FET buffer with a high input impedance of 1Mohm and a number of changes to the capacitors and resistors to have as little frequency roll off as possible especially the bass.  A nice lift on the bottom end to keep it FAT sounding plus as little high frequency roll off so as to keep as much of that Marshall sizzle as possible.

And that is all it really is.  Fairly simple eh ?

Well at a gig a number of weeks back which was going to be the first real test of it, the pedal failed due to a resistor in the voltage divider almost touching and causing a short.  I pulled it apart and tested the other components and they all are working fine, so i fixed the short and re-boxed the electronics and tried again and all turned out fine.

So today the 22nd of August, rehearsal rolls around   Time to give the booster a run at rehearsal volume.

My score? 10/10.

I was impressed! The pedal did exactly what i wanted it to do and MORE!  I mean this thing really pushed my tone above and beyond what i expected.

I tried a number of different tonal options with it while playing such as pedal on with Marshall Ultra gain channel on and guitar volume down to about one quarter and was blown away!  I was able to use my guitar plectrum on different angles (ala Paul Gilbert, Vinne Moore etc..) and could hear every little change.  That is one thing i could not adequately achieve with a digitally altered signal.

When the pedal was on for leads, the OD1 channel just lapped it up and saturated so much more than i expected.  Every single little nuance could be heard right down to the plectrum attack angle.

On the Marshall Clean channel, i was equally impressed!  There was (as expected) a large volume boost as opposed to the OD channel with more saturation, but never the less, the clean channel showed its own characteristics clearly and concisely!  Once again i could every little pick direction and touch.  Every time the pedal was on, OD or clean, it literally changed the way i played!  That was NOT what i expected.  Headroom had opened up so much that i was able to use my other pickups with a far greater level of satisfaction.

To say the least, i have made significant changes to my own tone over the past 3 – 6 months and extremely happy with the results thus far.  Ive ditched the use of digital effects (with the exception of a few others like Chorus and Delay) for my playing as they just cannot keep up with tone i want.

I look back on my use of digital gear like amp modelers etc, as an experiment that just would not and could not succeed…

Time has come to build my own pedal board to accommodate my new pedal and my return to individual effect units, so that will be the next project me thinks then another clean booster project but with a slight difference.  Basically it will be the same thing but i will use it as a volume cut instead of a boost, to save me having to use the volume knob when needed where i don’t have the time to pull back the volume control.

The quest for my ultimate in guitar tone continues!  The race that never ends is at least heading where i want it to go, to guitar tube tone bliss

Friday 30th of July 2010 at the Globe Theatre, Brunswick Street Fortitude Valley
Tickets $13, Four bands available at http://globetheatre.oztix.com.au/default.aspx?Event=16894

Also on the 31st of July at Club Envy on the Sunshine Coast with solo art metal guitarist Rob Stanley

Plus!
Some very big gig news coming up for August for Gold Coasters.

Follow us on Twitter, @instinctfx and @TheCPP or head over to Facebook here

I can hear people thinking, “Brendan!  DIY??? BWAHAHAH!!”

Yes thats right, im not the outdoors “Fully Loaded Man” type of person and really, who cares.

Never the less, its lead me down the track of re-learning all the stuff i learned in school and at home with numerous electronics kits and what not.

What ive been looking for is the right box to “enhance” my Marshall tone and found that in Australia, enhancing your tone is totally and utterly abhorrent’ly overpriced.

At first I thought, “Hmm, these pedals are rather expensive.”  Then i looked at the price of the Australian Dollar vs the US dollar and was gobsmacked.  At the time there was about 8 cents difference in value yet prices of parts and equipment in Australia are almost TRIPLE the cost they are in the USA.

I mean, REALLY, i can buy a unit from the USA, have it shipped here in less than 4 days (considering it takes 2 WEEKS to get book from a shop in Sydney) for almost a 1/4 the price of buying it here in Australia.

Thanks to our wonderful distributors and resellers, which i must say are in a tight spot.  Yes they need to make money too but there is ZERO need to try and extract a full dole cheque out of some unemployed musician trying to make a success of him or herself just for a simple effects unit that has less components in it as a TV REMOTE!! Which also explains why you can talk down the price of equipment at a music shop too, but you still need to have the money to begin with <end rant!>

I digress

I set about searching for more pedals and different designers etc and stumbeled across http://www.diyguitarist.com/

I saw all the pedals and variants he has built and it got me thinking, “This looks like something to investigate”. I moved my search in to schematics for effect pedals and found that there really wasnt much too them.  Ive never opened a pedal and had a look at the PCB before so it never crossed my mind to investigate and try this out myself.

After all the reading I did on Pauls website,  it lead me to the word of DIY, DO IT YOURSELF.  So i set about searching for more information on DIY effect units on Google and was swamped!  The wealth of information is staggering for the diy guitarist out there and there is SO much to learn.

I continued to search for some more information, videos and documents on DIY guitar effects and  found this video on youtube (a first of many DIY vids) belonging to Brian Wampler of Wampler Pedals http://www.wamplerpedals.com

I saw this video and BANG! i was hooked.  In the past three weeks ive had my head buried in books, schematics and even maths!  It has consumed alot of my time but has been a great experience of learning.

I bought a copy of Brians e-book on how to build effects and found what i needed to get started on building and designing my circuits, starting off with Brians Clean Booster circuit.

I tried this circuit out today with the Marshall and the Sunn T412 at rehearsals and OH MY! What a boost, albeit without any buffering or any other effects in the way or long cables.  The “thump” this thing gave to the sound was impressive to say the least for a basic prototype.

I made some changes to the original design in the ebook using the suggested LM386 IC plus added a high pass filter above 19kHz and a low pass at around 105hz.  This removes alot of rubbish not needed and trying to tighten up the tone to get what i want out of it.

Its quite basic at the moment but im sure it will get better as i go with the development of the unit, never the less, all this electronics stuff does not stop me from sussing out other pedals more for tonal ideas.

Stay tuned for the developments as i progress trying to make my tonal presence more alive sounding than dead digital

Wampler pedals have a couple of really good boutique pedals that are quite interesting:

EGO Compressor

PlexiDrive

Pinnacle Reissue

These are all great sounding overdrive pedals although along with your atypical Australian pricing.

Stay tuned for the next part of my quest for a “more than satisfactory” tone.

The Marshall is sounding hot as ever, except for the annoying hum, which turns out it may well be either a leakage on one of the circuit boards between the valve stage and the ouput or bias drift from the valves, or many other issues, who knows until John has a look at it.  But apparently this is has been noticed as being a problem with the Marshall DSL’s and TSL’s of late.

So the amp is off to the shop for some minor repairs……. Boooh!

In the meantime, the search continues for the sound i want.  Upon some research, i may well have found what im looking for but will need to try it out and not many people sell it (after trawling their dealer list)

Xotic AC Booster

This may be the ticket.  Ive heard alot of demo’s of this and it appears to be what i may want.  It sounds pretty damned good too.  On further research, it happens to be one of the three types of overdrive that Paul Gilbert uses.  Now i love Pauls sound and his use of the amp overdrive + his various drives.

He uses one for his shredding, one for his rockier, slower and more melodic melodies and rhythms plus another one for lesser rhythmical tones.

From the reviews ive read and heard it appears to have great response to volume control as well.  I like being able to explore lower gain “chunk” tones for my band The Cilikis Progressio Project and be able to provide a wide range of dynamics in the solos and more rockier tracks rather than having a common and sorely overdone “move out of the way, the leading edge of my sound will chop your head off” tone.

Well that sound is bit over the top for what i want (the chop ya head off metal sound) but this may be path i might need to go down to try and cement a sound thats a huge, phat rocky sound yet can be played without sounding “too” metal.

Ahh the elusive goal of the guitarist in the search for perfect tone continues……

Well i forgot to take my pedals and leads etc… so i had to resort to using the amp overdrive.  Now with relatively new valves i know it sounds great (minus a bit of muddyness in the low end which changes slightly depending on plectrum guitar gain etc..)

Well it did sound great as i knew it would and sounded exactly the same as the models im using in my Line6 setup.

I thought, maybe i should go about researching the use of maybe some stompboxes in the pre and use the line6 for just effects like Delays, Choruses, Flange etc etc running through the send loop.

So ive been hunting and have come up with a dilema of what to choose.  This means im going to have to spend hours at a music shop testing stuff out with my gear to try and get what i want out of the sound.

I will need to get me a Marshall footswitch to change from clean to drive etc plus maybe a stomp box or three who knows.  But what i DONT want is to lose any warmth or tone from the sound of the amp when the pedal is engaged.

So far my list includes

Ibanez Tubescream TS9DX

BOSS SD-1 Super Overdrive

BOSS CS-3 Compressor/Sustainer

The tube screamer does edge out that sound that i want but the model i tested with seems to decrease the upper and middle tone that i dont want.  I want the eq to remain as set without losing the quality of that eq.

The BOSS SD-1 has a nice crunch to it at lower settings that may drive the amp overdrive the way i want it too but then again i dont want it to distort the signal and take away any tone from the guitar.

The Compressor will help round out that edge i think but based on some tests using a Line6 compressor this may not help as much as i think except that a hardware compressor such as the CS3 would help out.

I really like the natural sound of the amp drives as i can use it to get that rock sound or even drop it back for the blues sound but when it comes to hamming it up for shred leads, its good too except when playing chunky rhythms is where that muddyness comes in.

Decisions Decisions Decisions

Ive had this dilema before and every guitarist goes through this dilema trying to come up with a setup that is what they want.  After playing for Acca/Dacca Bon Scott tribute show for 2 odd years, i certainly know the Marshalls capabilities and what i want out of it and currently i am just not 100% happy with the sound i have.

Each guitarist has their own views of the perfect tone for them and will always be trying to improve and tweak their sound.  Once again im on that hunt for my perfect tone and what i want out of the sound.  I am most of the way there but change is in the wind for more clarity and definition of sound.

One of them in particular is my favourite player, Mr Paul Gilbert.  Former guitarist of 80′s band RacerX and Mr Big (with Billy Sheehan etc..)

Paul is notible for his work as being more or less (well to me atleast), the “Shredders’ shredder”

Each time he plays, each note is clear and concise.  Very clean style of shredding unlike many many others who will remain nameless as not to offend the delicate sensibilities of the shredding community around the planet (yes you know who you are!)

As a guitarist myself, one thing that stands out the most from Pauls playing that has made ALOT of in-roads to my own playing is his sensible use of overdrive and picking style etc…  Very clean cut and distinctive.  I hold my guitar plectrums exactly the same way.

Take this clip for example:

His description of the excercise where he uses a low input from the guitar thus giving a semi overdriven feel.  Each note he plays is clear as a bell. Even at full a overdriven sound, its *STILL* clear as!

Using this idea in my own playing has paid off over the years.  Being able to provide a listener with shredding but actually giving them something else to think about other than just “oh yay, another player shredding on the fretboard and boring people to hell with the same crap everybody ELSE can do”

Sweep picking has become rife in the guitar players arsenal as well. Paul admits to not being the best at it and its something he doesnt do as much if ever.  His approach to arpeggios is something that other guitarists especially the constant sweepers out there.  Yes sweeping is really cool and fun to do but for **** SAKE! TRY SOMETHING ELSE! Here! Try the Paul Gilbert method of arpeggiating. Not only does it sound cooler, it looks cooler as well. (For the non shredder, not only is shredding on the guitar fun for the player its great to watch as well)

Shredding is not hard to do no matter what some players say, but one thing that IS hard to do is getting players to learn take a step back and see the full picture of the music and the focus of what is trying to be portrayed by the music.

Im not being critical of other players, per se, as there are many other players out there with different techniques and styles of sound and picking etc, that do sound clear as well.  Take Vinne Moore for example or Gary Moore.

Vinne Moore (now plays for UFO) has a great style to listen too.  Gary Moore, although some may dispute his shredding credentials, is still a great player and a great demonstration of feel and control.

Guitarists can stand there all day playing their phrygian scale over a metallica’ish E5/F5 progression till the cows come home, BUT if your solo has no feel or substance to it, you will just fit into the, “ive seen others do that” category.

Im not telling people to slow down or not, just that if you want to stand out from the crowd, be original  and try adding some feel into your solos and other melodies.

There is nothing wrong with a well placed peice of silience and some added “cool” to your solos.

Guitarists I recommend listening too and taking note of from a soloing point of view”

Paul Gilbert, Vinnie Moore, Vernon Reid, Alex Skolnick, Marty Friedman, Joe Satriani, Steve Morse, Gary Moore, Eric Johnson

Some to listen to and enjoy but try not to replicate like everyone else tries to:

Steve Vai, John Petrucci, Herman Li, but  to name just a few.
They are awesome players but puhlease! Just listen to many many more people instead of trying to replicate them “exactly”!! use a bit of outside of the box thinking!

Just to end this off

I think Paul explains this VERY well.

Rhythm is everything.

Christmas is here, well tomorrow actually and its about damn time.  So over the damn shopping and spending money i dont have on stuff that just cost about twice as much as it should.  People everywhere meandering around the shopping malls in a daze.  And really, the rudeness of some people is just astounding!  While in Harvey Norman in Garden City, i tried to let a young couple past with their pram and kids etc and some slack person decided to just wander through blocking the path i tried to create for them.

The shallow end gene pool always comes out swinging at christmas time, wheres the chlorine? I mean, really is it that hard to have just a little bit of patience and wait your turn?  jeeezz!!!

Oh! And to top things off, my amplifier repair man is away on holidays!

So my Marshall JCM 2000 DSL will have to remain quiet for a few weeks till i get it fixed! 

That means recording of the guitar tracks for Station13 will just have to wait till mid january.

To all of my clients and guitar students, plus the members of my band, Frank and Tyronne:  Merry christmas to you and your wives, girlfriends, kids and family etc. etc. etc. !

Fingers crossed for a great new year!